The Famous TV Host Who KIlled For Ratings - The Wallace Souza Story
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Who is Wallace Souza and what is his background?
So this crime TV show host really, really wants his ratings to go up. So he has people killed so that he can put it on his show. Now the guy's name is Wallace, and Wallace is 38 when this story starts, and he's living in Brazil. And Wallace, he's an interesting guy. He's a former police officer in one of Brazil's most crime-ridden cities, and he's the kind of guy who seems to be obsessed with getting attention and gaining power from it. So one day in 1996, he gets this idea. He wants to co-create a TV show called Canal Livre for a local TV station. And the show, it's kind of gruesome, like it reports on a lot of the crime happening in the city, and it includes raw footage of arrests and big drug busts and dead bodies, while Wallace is back in the studio commenting on all the crimes.
So he creates this show and this little local show actually blows the up and it becomes a hit. Turns out people actually want to tune in and see gritty footage of all these crazy crimes being committed. In fact, this show is so popular that sometimes when a regional soccer game is supposed to air at the same time as Canal Livre, they will choose not to show the soccer game. So basically the show is more popular in this region of Brazil than soccer, which is crazy. Anyway, over the next two years, the episodes get wild. They start featuring musical acts and there are segments with dancing women and segments with puppets. And remember, this is a crime show that will regularly show dead bodies. But whatever, this all just makes the whole thing even more popular in the region.
Not only that, but in an attempt to increase the drama of this show, Wallace and his crew eventually start following police to crime scenes. And they'll like film shootouts that are happening. And yeah, sometimes they'll film murder victims whose bodies haven't been identified yet. And then he'll air these segments back in the studio in front of his live studio audience. Yes, his brutal crime murder show is shot in front of a live studio audience. But this, in turn, makes it all even more popular. And Wallace gets super popular. And now that he's a minor celebrity, in 1998, Wallace decides to get into politics. And he runs for state deputy, which in the U.S. would be like the equivalent of a state senator.
And wouldn't you know it, he wins and he becomes state deputy. Now, along with this new government position, Wallace continues to host Canal Livre. Now, at this point in the story, the show is huge. Plus, he's got this other government job. So he hosts the show, but he doesn't have time to personally rush out to every crime scene. So now they have a team of reporters doing it in his stead.
How did Canal Livre become a sensational crime show?
Now, despite the fact that this show is already getting crazy good ratings, at some point Wallace decides it's just not good enough. He wants more. And he and his team noticed that any time they show graphic footage of a newly murdered dead body, their ratings spike significantly. So Wallace starts thinking, how could we get more dead bodies? And this is where he comes up with this insane strategy to get his ratings higher than they've ever been before. He decides to start orchestrating some of the crimes. That way he can get lots of dramatic crime content. And his field reporters will always be first on the scene and they can like film the dead bodies and stuff before they're covered up. And he will literally hire a hitman to assassinate someone, usually a suspected drug trafficker or some other criminal.
And then he will tell his reporter crew exactly where the crime scene is going to be. And when that reporter crew shows up, they can film the dead body before the police get there. And this actually works. And the audience loves seeing this stuff. So the show's ratings stay high. A lot of times, Wallace's TV crew will show up to the crime scene before the police themselves show up. So it's all very exciting TV. And so Wallace keeps going and he organizes more crime for his reporters to capture. And at one point, his team gets to a crime scene before police show up and a victim had been killed.
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